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Basmanny Court Defends Human Rights
// Civil society
Basmanny Court in Moscow refused to hear a suit by the Federal Registration Service that sought to liquidate the Human Rights Research Center, the largest human rights association in Russia. The court hearing lasted about 15 minutes. The claimants wanted to show that the center had not filed information on its activities with the FRS or filed information for the state register of legal entities for five years and should therefore be liquidated. Lawyers for the center responded that they had turned in all necessary documents to the FRS on time.
The Human Rights Research Center was founded in 1992. It united 13 organizations, which includes the Moscow Helsinki Group and the Union of Committees of Soldiers Mothers. Its programs are financed by international human rights organizations and its budget last year was around $500,000.
Human rights activists are satisfied with the court's decision, but are convinced that it is only a pause in their attack on noncommercial organizations, intended to avoid a scandal before the G8 summit. The suit was filed at the end of January, several days after the “spy scandal” created by the Rossia television channel. Center director Lyubov Vinogradova noted that the center's problems are not over yet, however. “The FRS is still refusing to accept our charter documents and, strictly speaking, that means that the management of the center, the signatures on the financial documents, are not legitimate,” she explained.
FRS chairman Sergey Movchan declined to comment on the court's decision.
“The decision of the Basmanny Court is evidence that the authorities do not see any serious opposition right now and do not consider it necessary to fight human rights activists systematically,” political scientist Stanislav Belkovsky opined. “But as soon as they create a new annoyance for the Kremlin, the court will only make the right' decisions about them.”
Andrey Kozenko
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 11, 2006
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